In many ways, Oxford is a typical small, American town.

Some local residents come from families who have lived in the area for generations, while other residents have come here from a thousand different places for a thousand different reasons. The population is diverse. As a bedroom community, many people live here and work elsewhere—at good jobs in nearby northern Chester County or Delaware. Agriculture is still important. There are a lot of working-class families who call Oxford home.

As a typical small town, local residents are affected by many of the problems that are impacting people across the country.

A story by Betsy Brantner in this week’s Chester County Press illustrates the challenges that families are facing as a result of the rising costs for basic needs, especially food and housing. There is a shortage of affordable housing, and as more people get shut out of the housing market, there is more demand for rental properties. The high demand and short supply causes prices to rise—and the increases are beyond what many families can afford.

For families struggling to pay for food and rent and electricity, it can be disconcerting. It can be dismaying.

Fred Rogers delivered positive messages about the importance of love, kindness, and friendship during his 30 years as the host of the popular PBS program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Rogers was born in 1928 and lived through the Great Depression and World War II before he reached adulthood. He often shared a story about something his mother would say when he saw scary things in the news. 

Here is what Rogers would explain: “My mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”

While Oxford is a “typical small town” in some ways, it has always been blessed with a large number of helpers.

Form the Oxford Senior Center and the Oxford Area Chamber of Commerce to SILO and the Oxford Area Civic Association, from the Oxford Rotary and the Oxford Fire Company to the

Oxford Area Foundation and the Neighborhood Services Center, there are many, many helpers in the community.

Ever since it first opened on November 1, 1971, the Neighborhood Services Center has been at the center of the effort to help others. The Neighborhood Services Center has offered a lifeline to thousands of local residents who have found themselves in a place of need. The Neighborhood Services Center, in short, is filled with helpers.

These helpers at Neighborhood Services Center operate a food pantry where families can turn when they experience a life crisis or are just struggling to put food on the table because of soaring prices at the grocery store.

Neighborhood Services Center offered financial rental assistance to 204 households in 2024. This assistance came at a time when rents, like food prices, are soaring beyond what many families can afford.

The Neighborhood Services Center is also a place where families can turn for emergency assistance with utility bills. The staff can also help people access information, and provide referrals to services and programs that the agency does not provide directly.

There’s no doubt that the world today is vastly different from the one where children tuned in by the millions to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. But, sometimes, wisdom is timeless. The wisdom that Rogers’ mother shared with him so many decades ago still seems to make good sense—“Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

If you can, support the helpers by making a donation to the Neighborhood Services Center, one of the aforementioned organizations, or others like them in the southern Chester County community.  Another option, perhaps even better than supporting the helpers, is to be a helper yourself.